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942 Cooling Fan Speed?

Having used a 942 for a year now, I’ve noticed that the cooling fan on the bottom of the unit frequently speeds up when recording or playing a program and sometimes does this in standby mode. I do understand that this is normal.

However, for the past couple of days the cooling fan continuously runs at high speed, even in standby. The 942 is not enclosed in a cabinet.

Doing a search for info on the 942’s cooling fan on this forum, I found several threads that mentioned overheating conditions. In a thread started by Gutter back on May 25, 2005, he put ¼” spacers under the feet of the 942 to aid cooling. (He had an overtemp warning of 147 degrees.)

I took Gutter’s idea and put 1” thick rubber spacers under the feet on my unit. The temperature drop of the 942’s housing was VERY significant! The heat given off from the vents on the left side was greatly reduced and the exhaust fan on the bottom almost feels like it’s now blowing cold air.

However, the cooling fan is still continuously running at high speed (in standby) and is quite audible from our normal seating location in our HT. Will check the internal temperature when I fire the unit up tonight.

Thanks for bringing up a great tip from a long time ago. I have kept all my dish receivers spaced up with cork/rubber spacers about 1" tall. I also have a couple of small pc types fans running 24/7 to blow away the heat generated by my 942's.

It is good to mention the cooling benefits of some kind of spacers to those who were not reading this forum a long time ago.

As for your fan running full steam all the time, have you tried a power cord reboot? Does the fan run full hog when you are viewing tv or just in standby?

Sounds like you were already clued-in to this cooling tip. Cool! (Pun intended) And yes, forums like dbstalk.com contain so much info from so many people that it's good to go back in time every so often using the search function.

To answer your question, the cooling fan has been running at high speed continuously for the past two days, both when "on" and in "standby". It hasn't changed speed / audible output for two days. Previously, you could easily hear it cycle slow / fast.

I did take your suggestion and performed a power cord reboot. After plugging the 942 back in, the fan ran at high speed for 20-30 seconds and then was quiet. A green light on the front panel came on for a few minutes and I could also hear the HD spin up. After a few minutes, the green light went out and all I could hear was the HD.

Checking underneath the 942, I could feel no cooling fan discharge. I propped the unit up and looked -- the cooling fan blades are not turning! I've never seen or heard this before on my 942.

The left side is a little warm, but significantly cooler than it was before "putting it up on blocks".

Our HT is 67 degrees right now (it's below ground level), so I'm guessing that the cooling was so effective after giving it more air that the fan doesn't need to run. I thought that the cooling fan was supposed to run all of the time, changing speeds as needed to prevent the internal temperature from exceeding a certain limit.

Sorry, I don't have a TV on right now (I'm too busy chasing moles around the yard), but will see if turning the unit on tonight causes the cooling fan to kick on. Will also check the temp under diagnostics.

Yep, very good tip! I've also had mine set up on spacers for quite awhile. Just for future reference, if something is acting funny with any of the DISH boxes, a soft reboot (hold the power button in) or a hard reboot (pulling the power cord) will fix it most of the time. These are honestly the best two trouble shooting tips that I have.

I don't think it is the software because neither of my 942's are having this problem. Now that Summer is here, how warm are you keeping it in your house? It may just be that the surrounding air temperature is warmer than before which is causing the fan to blow more than it had before.

I'm glad you posted this, I thought I was having a problem with my receiver. Just after the L287 upgrade, I noticed my fan was running continuously. This lasted a day or two. It was so noisy that I could hear it in the upstairs bedrooms (the receiver is in the downstairs living room). For whatever reason it's fine now. I think it was related to the software update; temps have been in the 50's at night here, so I can not image that the receiver was overheating.

while it has been a bit warmer outside, the inside temps aren't any more than usual. The unit itself also does not feel the least bit warm - neither the case, nor the air blowing out of the vents. The fan is also running at a continous rate, rather than the usual occasional rev up and slow down.

I'm not surprised that it's not happening to everyone, but I'm ever so slightly comforted that I'm not the only one.

Is it coincidence that I got the call the day before the fan change to upgrade to the 622?

My 942 has had this problem since the download too. Every morning the fan is roaring away but goes away with a hard reboot. Next morning, after an update it is running at full speed again. I hope they are aware of this and are trying to fix it. I wish they would just leave things alone when things are working OK. I just want to watch tv and record something once in a while. Everything was great until 287.

I too have noticed that my 942 fan is running all the time. I unplugged it for 12 hrs , then placed it on 2" spacers and plugged it back in. It booted up and all was well (no continious fan operation). After work I came home and the fan was running all the time. 942 was in standby all day.

Sounds to me due to the number od complaints from other users that this must of been caused by a software update. So until they fix it, I will have to reboot it when I want to use it.

I am having the same fan problem but on only one of my 2 - 942s.
I have 1/2 inch bumpers under each for all the time I had them - about 18 months. The high fan speed problem just started to ocurr about a month ago.
After reading this helpful thread I did a power cord restart and it seem to fix problem but I do not know for how long yet. (PS did a power button reset first but it did not fix it need the power cord reset)

The power cord "fix" of last night was unfixed this morning. Doing a power cord reset this morning seems to again "fix" the problem. As noted by others it would seem to be in some way related to the 3 AM EPG download.

Still find it odd that it only seems to affect only on of the 2 - 942s (always the same one.

Thanks for the additional input, folks. That's interesting about Jerry 42's two different 942 units behaving differently. Maybe E* can use this info to correct this situation.

Some of us are more sensitive to whirring / whooshing noises than others. Some HT enthusiasts even purchase front projectors, amps, etc. that are the quietest available so as to not detract from the quieter passages in movies and music. When my now-noisier 942 is churning away, it makes FAR more noise than my front projector or my fan-cooled amp. This is really distracting!

Enclosing this 942 wind machine is certainly possible, but I’m hoping for an L2.88 fix.

I've been out of town for the past several weeks and came home to find my fan still running full-tilt all the time (except for the occasional stoppage in middle of the night when the box is off - during software downloads perhaps?).

I hate having to call tech support, but getting a bit tired of the noise.

I brought a small very quiet computer case fan that operates on 12 DCV at .08 ampere. From the various old DC transforms (used a 12dvc 300 mA) I have around I cut the DC side output wires and connected the two fan wires to the the transformer. (note if the fan does not work switch the two wires as poles are important here)

I placed the fan outside the left side of the 942 case by the vents with flow going away from 942 and immediately the 942's fan speed dropped to the lower quieter rate.

This my not be the answer that everyone is looking for - but the exterior fan and the lower 942 fan noise together is substandially quieter than the 942's fan running at the higher speed.

This works with both my 942s - one fan each. I got both fans as package for less than $12. Just be sure to check the "db" noise ratings of the fan(s).

Thing is, with mine it definitely not running hot. The fan is on all the time, regardless of whether the receiver is on (I know it's technically always on, but you know...).

There is plenty of ventilation on all sides of the unit and the room temp is kept nice and cool thanks to a/c. It simply seems that the fan is just on - and the timing corresponds exactly with the last sw update.

My 942's were not running hot either. There is more than 4 feet of space on front and both sides and I have them sitting on rubber spacers that makes an extra 1+ 1/2 inch clearance under the units. I do not know the final answer but perhaps air is not moving from inside the 942 case to outside fast enough and the exterior fan pulls out extra air from the 942s.

One 942 is in the bedroom and my wife was saying how much noise there was late at night. Now with the fan the noise 80% quieter.

PS before going the fan route I called tech support and even got to supervisors in US. Their response on the fan noise was "its normal". So good luck with TS. My guess is 942 fixes are less important to DIsh now that the MPEG 4 boxes are out and they want you to trade up.